Shayna Riddle and the House of Hogwarts
by Shayna Riddle
Summary: 6th year Slytherin Prefect Shayna Riddle deals w her own story durring Harry's run w the Order of the Pheonix


AN: omg I'll bet no one even remembers the first installment of this story, it was so long ago. I'm also warning you in advance I'm terrible at getting updates in on time. BUT I love writing and I love my stories and I'd LOVE to know what you think of them, so please R/R If you're not into new characters be patient, the people you know and love will be a part of this story once we get into it ... mostly the Tiwns and Harry :-)  
  
It was a lazy summer's day, the kind where the peace and cheer rubbed heavy against the nerves of one who had something on their mind. One such person was the 15 year old Harry Potter, who sat on the stairs outside the living room (trying to listen to the news unnoticed). But a year older and an ocean away there was another …  
  
The blinds of 147 Surry Oak's second window tilted open to allow a pair of startling blue eyes to survey the street. Not that there was much to see. Emily and Jack Krum played in the lower limbs of a tree in the yard. But otherwise all was quiet, just as it had been everyday since she'd returned from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Quiet … as if nothing was wrong … but something was. Something was very wrong. And there was nothing like a quiet something to wear Shayna down.  
  
She turned her eyes to a calendar that hung over her bed. Looking at that upset her too. The same square seemed to remain uncrossed for weeks, and the remaining squares sucked all the satisfaction of crossing one off away. This eternity was the 7th of July and there were 9 day-long hours until the next.  
  
Even for the aggravating lack of things to look at, Shayna was ok as long as she didn't close her eyes … it was only then that she was met with another pair, red lensed and crinkled with laughed into the same shape hers took when she smiled … the same bony hands … she could even pick out aspects of her voice in his- NO! She snapped her eyes open. She had to not think about her father. No amount of magic could fix it and dwelling would only make it worse.  
  
That was what she told Michele 3 weeks ago when she'd written. Her little sister sat in an orphanage somewhere on Potter's side of the ocean. Neither she nor Shayna owned an owl so they had to use muggle post, and that, coupled with mutual procrastination made the letters few and far between. It was still amazing how close the girls had become over such a short time. They had only met last year at school, neither knowing they had a sister. Shayna had immediately taken first year Michele under her wing, out of prefect duty she had thought at the time … but looking back she had always seen something of herself in Michele. Maybe part of her knew.  
  
Well they most certainly knew now. The owl they had both received on the night of their father's return … the feel of her little hands clutching desperately to Shayna's robes as he greeted them … the look on her face when he'd said –   
  
A knock at the door rescued Shayna from her thoughts this time. It opened without her saying a word and there was her rescuer, Samantha Krum, bless her. Little brunette heard poked through the door, eyes a sandy color to match and far too large for her face.   
  
"Yo, Mom says it's dinner time." She piped   
  
"I'm not hungry" Shayna's lips moved on auto piloted  
  
"Again?" Samantha questioned  
  
Shayna's eyelids dropped into a slightly challenging look. "Ok ok" she retracted her head and closed the door.  
  
Samantha had once been the human equivalent to several cappuccinos with extra sugar. But these days her natural caffeine level seemed to have come down to a cup or two. It wasn't all that confusing, she must have been effected at least a little by the happenings of the past year. The daughter of two muggles, Samantha had been a first year Ravenclaw student last year. Now that Shayna thought about it, it was a pretty scary time to suddenly enter the Wizarding world. Samantha must have been terrified.  
  
It was a tribute to her maddening boredom that Shayna was actually giving some thought to the dark candy coated recesses of Samantha's mind. She was after all just one of the Krums. Shayna had been sent to live with the Krums for her own safety 6 years ago and this was the first time she'd given Samantha a second though. Although she was certain she'd reprimanded her once or twice, probably for fighting with Michele, which she did quite often. And she had sat with her in the hospital wing after her brush with a werewolf, who turned out to be a boy Shayna worked with named Warren.  
  
Speaking of Warren … Shayna walked to her desk and gently brushed her snake Salazar off 3 pieces of parchment.   
  
"I am trying to sleep" he hissed, resituating himself in the sunlight's path through the window.   
  
"Then stop whining and get back to it." Shayna teased  
  
He stuck his forked tongue out at her, a gesture which never failed to amuse her. Shayna had also been living with Salazar for 6 years. Her first week with the Krums she'd saved him from the prodding fingers of Samantha and Jack. Thrilled to have found a rescue and a parselmouth all in one body he had stayed with her ever since. Everyone referred to him as her pet snake, but he wasn't, he was so much more … her conscience, her friend.  
  
Shayna shifted the pieces of parchment. The top one was a letter from her frie- … from Amber Malfoy … Ammie, who had been her best friend. But he had come back and nothing made sense anymore. She had been crying tears that weakened her will to breathe while Amber's smile couldn't be run from her face. After that fight in the dorm room the word friendship would never quite fit between them, though they were now trying to be peaceful. How could two people be there for each other when they stood on opposite lines of an unspoken battle? This letter had come quickly, but it was vague and distant, lacking all the personable qualities of a best friend's letter. Trust was gone, Shayna knew and understand that Amber was doing much more with her summer then she could safely let on in writing, and it made the distance between them so much greater then the Atlantic Ocean.  
  
There was another who's letters distinctly lacked any real information, Severus', Shayna's mentor. For all he'd written he could be anywhere from Antarctica to the Caribbean right now. She missed him terribly, and knowing he was in a far darker place then her closed eyes could take her was of no assistance. If Voldemort found out who he really worked for … No, he didn't tell her anything in her letters, not even that he was well … and so all she could do was worry.  
  
She finally reached her bed, that had somehow moved a mile across her room through her paper shifting. And she reread Warren's latter for what must have been the 100th time.  
  
Hey Genius-Girl,  
  
Greetings from Canada where I am still having the best summer I can remember, not that it's a vacation by any stretch. I'm doing a quickspell less and a half a day, trying to catch up. It's pretty cool to be learning some magic, but I can't get used to the idea of going to Hogwarts with all the kids who were born on easy Street … I just can't get over Dumbledore, what a great guy.  
  
Anyways, about what you said. I don't blame you one little bit for what happened last year at Hogsmead Station, I mean how could you have known? And of course I don't think any less of you or Michele. You know my secret and now I've got yours … we're square.   
  
Speaking of which, guess who learned to brew his own wolvesbane! Proud of me? You best be girl!  
  
  
  
Can't wait to see ya,  
  
Warren  
  
Finishing the letter again Shayna smiled, at last a reason to smile. Warren was safe in the care of two elderly werewolves and would be there at Hogwarts with her when the term started at last.  
  
"Isn't it past dinner time?" Salazar interrupted her thoughts  
  
"I'm not hungry" she gave the reply again  
  
"Shayna" the snake tested mildly "You haven't eaten all day, and you've skipped dinner every night this week-"  
  
"I don't wanna go out there with them!" She spat  
  
There was silence for a moment and then "it's not them" the snake said knowingly. Shayna nodded … she just wanted to be alone. The things she was dealing with were nothing they could understand. She forced her mind back to the image she's just been enjoying. A picture of Warren passing her the potatoes … dinner at the Slytherin table … Michele's smile unhaunted … Severus safe at the staff table … the twins sneaking her a wink across the Great Hall … but what was that in the darkened window? … red eye, green light … 


End file.
